Wells says it will repay feds $25 billion soon

Andrew S. Ross

Published 4:00 am, Friday, September 4, 2009

Wells Fargo & Co. said it didn't need the $25 billion in the first place. So when will it return the money it was essentially forced to take under the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program last year? "Shortly," CEO John Stumpfsaid Wednesday, setting off a flurry of speculation as to when the San Francisco bank would join the 10 other major financial institutions that have already repaid their share.

"It sounded a little premature to me," said banking analyst Joe Morfordof RBC Capital Marketsin San Francisco. He cited, in particular, the "stretch" on Wells Fargo's capital ratios generated by its acquisition of the toxically asset-troubled Wachovia Corp. "We didn't expect them to pay it back this year, and we still don't," he said.

Not that Wells appears vulnerable. Wells brought in $14.2 billion in new capital in the second quarter, easily surpassing the $13.7 billion mandated by the government-imposed "stress test," which bank chairman Richard Kovacevichhad called "asinine." Among other things, that means it won't have to raise capital specifically to repay the TARP investment. "Wells is generating capital at a pretty good clip, and will continue to do so," Morford said.

Which, like the other big financial institutions, Wells will need to do - even ordered to do - to better protect itself from future shocks.

You Cannot Miss This Incredible Documentary of Manolo Blahnik on How He Built His Shoe EmpireELLE

This Study Found the Optimal Salary for Total HappinessWibbitz

Two Home Improvement Retailers Plan To Hire Over 130,000 US WorkersFortune

Asia Markets Decline After Big Wall Street DropAssociated Press

Ty Pennington's New Show Celebrates Small BusinessesCheddar TV

Investigators raid Maywood mayor's home and businesses in city probeFoxLA

Piling on: First, AT&T Inc. gets hammered about the perceived inadequacies of its network vis-a-vis bandwidth-sucking iPhone users. Then come reports Apple Inc. may end its exclusive iPhone deal with AT&T as early as next year. Topping it off, a suit filed by the litigiously inclined Burlingame law firm of Cotchett, Pitrie & McCarthy alleges "deceptive advertising practices" in connection with AT&T's and Apple's long-promised multimedia messaging service.

The suit, filed Wednesday against both companies, says the services had been promised in ads going back to June, noting "only in fine print disclosures ... that MMS will be available in 'late summer.' " In fact, AT&T said Thursday that MMS will be available Sept. 25 - maybe it was thinking of our "Indian summer" - ending what Chronicle tech writer Ryan Kim described in a blog post as a "glaring omission" on the iPhone.

But no word on the equally long-promised data-tethering service, which is also the subject of the Cotchett lawsuit. AT&T has said the service, which would enable the iPhone to function as a 3G modem on laptops, will be available "in the future."

As to the suit, Apple and AT&T said they do not comment on pending litigation. Still, in view of the imminent appearance of MMS, could not Cotchett, which presumably has its hands full with its Bernard Madoff-related actions, call off the dogs on this one? No call back from the firm as of press time.

Solid, not so solid, as a rock: Stanford Universityengineers have come up with a way to not only prevent multistory buildings from collapsing in a major earthquake but also return them upright, "true and plumb" on their foundations, "with damage confined to a few easily replaceable parts," according to the university. The system has reportedly been successfully tested in Japan, where it underwent the simulated rigors of 7.0-plus quakes. Details at links.sfgate.com/ZICG.

If only such wizardry could be applied to the quake shaking Stanford's financial foundation, i.e, its collapsing endowment fund, which is looking to force close to 500 people from their occupational homes by the end of the year.

Real time, and rated: SFGate just launched a cool business widget, called Real-time Company News. Developed by a Sunnyvale company, SkyGrid, it provides a continuous stream of items on public companies and judges the particular items - "based on advanced algorithms," I'm told - to be either "good," "bad" or "open" for the companies in question.